Friday, August 05, 2005

GUT SHABUS,GUT SHABUS

(click title)Today is the 900th Yartziet of Rashi.Rashi lived in Troyes, northern France 1040 to 1105, where he was a vinter surviving the massacres of the 1st crusades through Europe.At twenty-five, he founded his own academy. He descended from royal house of Dovid.Most jews of Askenasi backround are from his family.BLAH BLAH BLAH.

He is the man who opens chumash to every jewish child and holds our hands while we walk through Shas.What he wore, who he knew, what he amassed in wealth is a none issue to me and him.He was the greatest commentator to chumash and his torah will never be forgotten from Am Yisroel.So his Yartziet is Bava Basra 29a, where it says "Kahn Mays Rashi Za"L", more than this day in Tammuz.צדיקים שבמיתתן נקראו חיים.As Rabanu Tom said of his grandfather "...his perush to shas I could have written,his work on chumash though that is divine"That commentary became so popular that there are now more than 200 commentaries on his commentary.Rabbi Wein has said many times "Rashi is like a mother taking a child across 5th avenue on the busiest day of the year"

And so the next time you ask What's Bothering Rashi, thinkYechi HaMelech Shloma LeOlam V'Ed-amshinover lives in amshinov plus or minus a week

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

yatzer hara yatzer shmara

Most of us fight with the Yetzer Hora on a daily basis,some of us fight long and hard.While others give in rather quickly.See the fight is like a escalator going down, you push you might rise, you still, YOU LOSE.And so some don't fight because we are like Dovid HaMelach and killed it with fasting or because we live in the five towns.Me I just buy it OTC.

Monday, August 01, 2005

OH' LE'LIE LEE

MO kabblah

Many of the bloggers love to mock Zohar and kabbalah,I feel like saying "JUST LEARN".To raise themselves via belittling others is so very TOBYKATZ.And so I went and found a mild bomb in their structure.A regular rationalist in fact the king of all MO,has a little skeleton,i'd like to share.My thing is to learn about the parsha on shabus,the advantage being I get to hear everyoneelse out first.The BIG con is all my divraei torah is a week late (thats what living in Amshinov is all about).Anyway I found this really far out hezber in the differences between Shavoos and Nedarim,in Rabbi Riechmann's collection of shurim from The Rav ZT'L (Rav Yosef Dov Soloveichik of boston).It can be found in the syuim on nederem(pg 156) and is very not litvish or modern.The ramban on matos {30,3} states that a shevooah is said in HIS name {bah'hashem} and a neder is lahashem.This idea is explained in the sifrei,that a neder is made on the king proper and a shavooah is on the kings's life.As we know Shevooah is from the word shiva.

And so RYBS brings proves from the Rambam that halachicaly shavoos are on G-d personally.My understanding of RYBS is as follows:The issue of shavoos is to sware honestly,without falsehood and the Lord's name is brought in to underline the validity of the statement.And therefore it is a mitzvah to sware truthfully,when you must sware in bais din," in my Name" as the Rambam proves this from a posek that a shavooah in the great and holy Name is service to HaShem.And he continues, a false shavooah is mechallel shem hashem and can't be totally remedied as the Rambam proves from a posek "lo yenakah hashem"continues the rambam that therefore one shouldbe more careful with this then other sins(ie spelling and grammer).As the Ramban said shevooah is from shiva, which are the amount of lower seferos (7) G-d runs this world with and they are the real truth don't violate them via false swearings(7).Neder on the other hand is the king himself , a neder is not a creation of a new issur,but rather it latches on to a prexisting holiness in an item.And all holiness is from the G-dself (my own word;) i like it too).which is the source for all nidrei issur.Therefore the Lord's name is NEVERbrought into a neder,they are already in the border of holy(kidshai shemayim).Therefore the ramban says that a neder is in the G-dself.KICKERRYBS continues: neder is from binah part of the higher seferic grouping unlike shavoos(see la'el).As the Sharrie Orah tells us that binah "reveals the light of keser,pulling the higher shea'phah from the source to the 7 lower seferos". Therefore binah(neder) is the sourceof holiness revealed in the G-dself.Therefore RYBS concludes, neder is lahashem because the essences of neder is sanctified in holy and testifies to Govoah.Shavooah on the otherhand is ba'Hashem, the man sanctifies.Neder is therefore cheftzah and shavooah is gavrah(briskers can never leave that alone)